(1) 陆嘉宁, 杭州图书馆对所有读者免费开放 包括乞丐. 青年时报 (Zhejiang), Jan 19, 2011.
http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2011-01-18/234421836200.shtml
(2) I never imagine that this is debatable. Not in US or Taiwan, anyway.
(a) How can you tell a person is a beggar in the first place?
(b) In US, there is a federal constitution.
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
("nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws")
The background of the Fourteenth Amendment: one of the Reconstruction Amendments,* which constitutes the Thirteenth Amendment (slavery barred), the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth (right to vote can not be denied based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (i.e., slavery).
* Reconstruction Amendments were passed after Civil War, in part to aid emancipated slaves. It is conceivable that former slaves could visit a public library in US, after the Civil War.
(b) Boston Public Library has a splendid history. And we Bostonians are proud of it.
(i) library
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library
(section 1.1 Libraries in the Hellenic world and Rome: Private or personal libraries appeared in classical Greece in the 5th century BC * * * In the West, the first public libraries were established under the Roman Empire [By the time of Augustus])
(ii) Boston Public Library
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Public_Library
(was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use. The Boston Public Library is also the library of last recourse of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; all adult residents of the state are entitled to borrowing and research privileges, and the library receives state funding)
Please note Puritans arrived at Boston in 1630. Great and General Court--the official name of legislature--of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
^ established Boston Latin School
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Latin_School
(both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States; modeled after Boston Grammar School in Lincolnshire, UK, from where many of Boston's original settlers derived)
^ and founded Harvard University in 1636.
Westerners are really after public good.
(iii) Ric Kahn, Free to all;* *These noble words hang over the Boston Public Library's entrance. But some say the open-door policy may come at the expense of patrons' comfort and safety. Boston Globe, Jun. 15, 2008.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/06/15/free_to_all/
^ The headquarters of Boston Public Library is located at Copley Square.
^ bushwhack
(vt): "AMBUSH; broadly : to attack suddenly : ASSAULT"
(vi): "to clear a path through thick woods especially by chopping down bushes and low branches"
^ free-for-all (n): "a competition, dispute, or fight open to all comers and usually with no rules : brawl; also : a chaotic situation resembling a free-for-all especially in lacking rules or structure <the press conference deteriorated into a free–for–all>"
Both definitions are from www.m-w.com.
^ But the idealism "Free to All" has teeth, backed by laws of the state and federal government.
(c) Why, and when, was federal government involved?
You see, 秦始皇 焚書坑儒, because he belittled knowledge.
(i) In contrast, founding fathers of United States thought like latter days Sims, "An educated customer is our best customer."
http://www.syms.com/
(ii) Thus, Federal Depository Library Program
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Depository_Library_Program
(As of June 2008, there are 1,252 depository libraries in the United States and its territories; established by an 1813 Congressional Joint Resolution ordering that certain publications be distributed to libraries outside of the federal government)
(iii) How does the program work? In exchange for free documents/books published by federal Government Printing Office (GPO), a library (public or private; including two library branches inside Harvard University) must allow any member of general public to read THOSE federal papers.
(d) What about China? When diod it have the first public library?
(i) History of Chinese Libraries. School of Library and Information Science (SLIS), Kent State University (Ohio).
http://www.slis.kent.edu/~mzeng/Dunhuang/libraryhistory.htm
(1905: first public library in Hunan province; followed by 15 in other provinces; 1909: first metropolitan (city) library)
(ii) Sharon Chien Lin, Libraries and librarianship in China. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998, at page 57.
http://books.google.com/books?id=nVPalcvlLJ0C&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=1909:+first+city+library+china&source=bl&ots=zeCy2dcHvO&sig=SBBIWYJAXGbpEbPrAI9w5ADADq4&hl=en&ei=vgs7TeHqB4rcgQee5aW3CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=1909%3A%20first%20city%20library%20china&f=false
("The first library was founded in Hunan province, in 1905. A few years laters, the Ministry of Culture and Education of the Qing government presented a memorandum to the throne, to suggest the establishment of the Metropolitan Library. The petition was approved by Emperor Xuantong in 1909, and preparatory work began immediately. However, the library was not formally open until August 27, 1912, due to the detheronement of the emperor in 1912. The administration of the library was put under the Ministry of Education (MOE) of teh newly founded Republic of China. Because of the library's isolated location, the MOE suspended service to the public while looking for a more convenient location. meanwhile, a branch library was opedned in June, 1913, which was turned over to the jurisdiction of the city of Beiping in 1929. The branch library changed its name to first City Library of Beiping and later became the Capital Library, a name it retains today. The Metropolitan Library [or the main branch] reopened eventually, on Januray 26, 1917; its collection had grown considerably by then")
(iii) Library of the Xu Jiahui Jesuit mission 徐家匯藏書樓, founded in 1847 and the forerunner of Shanghai libraries 上海现代图书馆的雏形, WAS private.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/%E5%BE%90%E5%AE%B6%E6%B1%87%E8%97%8F%E4%B9%A6%E6%A5%BC
(1956年，藏书楼被政府征用，成为上海图书馆的一个部分，专门收藏1949年以前出版的外文书籍)
(e) What was the first public library in Taiwan?
(i) In English:
National Taiwan Library. Updated Nov 4, 2009.
http://www.ntl.edu.tw/ct.asp?xItem=3214&ctNode=596&mp=2
("The National Taiwan Library is the oldest public library of Taiwan * * * The predecessor of the National Taiwan Library was known as the Taiwan Governor’s Library, established in 1914 (Tasho year 3). On April 14, 1914, the Japanese governor promulgated ‘ukase number 62’, that the Taiwan Government Library be designated a public office")
【 在 choi 的大作中提到: 】
: (1) 陆嘉宁, 杭州图书馆对所有读者免费开放 包括乞丐. 青年时报 (Zhejiang), Jan 19, 2011.
: http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2011-01-18/234421836200.shtml
: (2) I never imagine that this is debatable. Not in US or Taiwan, anyway.
: (a) How can you tell a person is a beggar in the f
: (以下引言省略...)